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60% of Afghan girls leave school by age of 15

Thursday, 26 December 2019 4:04 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 26 December 2019 4:11 PM ]

In this photo taken on July 16, 2019, Afghan schoolgirls take mid-term exams at a school in Kabul. (Photo by AFP)

Amin Alemi
Press TV, Kabul

Findings by the Women and Children Legal Research Foundation, an Afghanistan-based NGO - have revealed that 62 percent of Afghan girls leave school between 13 and 15 years of age.

The group said of the 12,000 female students who were studying in the seventh grade, only 6,000 graduated from their schools - a much higher dropout rate than boys.

Afghanistan's Ministry of Education has described the figures as worrying, saying the body is committed to finding a solution to the problem.

The NGO says war, poverty, forced marriage and culture are the main reasons that women cannot attend school.

It conducted its research in Kabul, Parwan, Balkh, Badakhshan, Nangarhar and Kandahar.

According to official statistics, 9.5 million children are going to schools now, out of whom 39 percent are girls. The Ministry of Education says at least 4 million children are deprived of access to school.

Poverty or lack of female teachers are not the only reasons behind the decreasing number of schoolgirls in Afghanistan. The government also blames terrorist groups for not allowing girls to go to school through staging acid attacks, poisoning them, and torching their schools.

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